Kelly Oliver & Shanade - Sunday 2nd October 2016 - Tittensor Village Hall

On Sunday 2nd October, at Tittensor Village Hall, A500 Music played host to two outstanding female singer-songwriters, Kelly Oliver and Shanade Morrow.

Hailing from Leamington, Shanade, accompanied by the talented Ben Haines on percussion, wowed the audience with an opening set of powerful and passionate music. With a voice reminiscent at times, of the great Janis Joplin, she superbly executed a wide repertoire of original songs (with the occasional cover). Perhaps one of the most memorable moments was, when showing off her versatility and vocal acrobatics, she closed with an unbelievably diverse medley of songs (from Ray Charles to hip hop) based on just four guitar chords. Overall an amazing performance, that left the audience shouting for more.

Following Shanade, came Kelly Oliver, an award winning contemporary folk singer songwriter from Hertfordshire, who has been described by Radio 2's Bob Harris as "an emerging voice in British Folk music". Her sweet and pure vocals complemented Shanade's more raunchy style perfectly, as she performed a series of beautifully crafted songs from each of her albums. Her rendition of the title track from the latest release "Bedlam", displayed her ability to move an audience with this incredibly sad story of a woman trapped in a nightmare world of insanity, whilst her performance of the single "Jericho", from the same album, was much more uplifting and spiritual.

Overall, the girls provided an evening of very high quality music, which the audience fully appreciated.

Many thanks to Gwynneth Pickford for this review